Vit à : Glasgow , Écosse - Royaume Uni
Francesca Zappia is art historian and a freelance curator.
In her work, Francesca explores the potentialities of artistic and curatorial research in passing on cultural memory and producing fresh knowledge through the creation of alternative narrations. Her practice takes a context-specific approach that develops through long-term conversations with artists and communities and results in the commissions of artistic projects. Reflecting about the responsibility of the curator of creating connections between art and audiences, besides organising exhibitions she explores new ways of dissemination online, on paper or through discursive events.
Francesca is currently a PhD candidate at The Glasgow School of Art / University of Glasgow where she develops a research-based project that reimagines new futures for the school’s plaster cast collection.
Flâneurs
Copies, appropriations, quotations in the collections of the Centre national des arts plastiques
Published by Shelter Press and Cnap
Flâneurs results from a curatorial research carried out within the collections of the Centre national des arts plastiques, which focused on the contested notions of copies, appropriations and quotations. Looking at art and design objects from the 19th century to today, this curatorial project shows how reproductions of artworks can be considered as objects with a specific cultural value and regarded in the same way as the originals.
Energy is Pattern!
Exhibition. NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital . In partnership with the Glasgow School of Art.
This exhibition presents designs of traditional patterns by Victorian architect Owen Jones, alongside reproductions of vintage designs from the collections of the Glasgow School of Art (Sylvia Chalmers, Dorothy Smith, Margaret Stewart, Robert Stewart) and drawings by contemporary artist Susanne Nørregård Nielsen. The exhibition aims to highlight the psychological and wellbeing effects of patterns.
The Curator’s workshop
CCA | Centre for Contemporary Arts – Glasgow
A monthly discussion group for Scottish based artists and curators. It fosters peer-led research and professional development by share of experience and resources.
Black Mountain
Performative reading with artist David Ryan and Irish musician Macdara Smith.
L’AhAh, Paris—Programme SET UP organised by c|e|a—Association française des commissaires d’exposition and Réseau Documents d’Artistes
This performative reading was a common and poetic reflection of David Ryan and Francesca Zappia about West Belfast, its past, and the life of the present communities.
L’intrigue se cherche dans le dénouement de son nœud
la compagnie, lieu de création, Marseille.
A one-year long collaborative research and exhibition with Marseille artist Doriane Souilhol & Glasgow-based Douglas Morland, exploring language, translation and misinterpretation.
Raoul Reynolds: A Retrospective | the book
Published by Poursuite Editions
This book traces Raoul Reynolds’ life and work through contributions by Jennifer Brownrigg, Guillaume Condello, Timothée Chaillou, Anna Dezeuze and Éric Mangion.
Raoul Reynolds: A Retrospective (co-curated with Amandine Guruceaga)
Scotland Street School Museum, Glasgow International festival + La Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille
This double retrospective presents for the first time the work of artist Raoul Reynolds (1883-1969). This eclectic character, amateur artist, navigated the Western avant-garde movements of the 20th century, from the Glasgow Style to minimalism.
The exhibitions have been realised thanks to the contribution of artists Stéphanie Cherpin, Helen de Main, Sandro Della Noce, Guillaume Gattier, Amandine Guruceaga, Benjamin Marianne, James McLardy, Douglas Morland, Philippe Murphy, Bobby Niven, Alys Owen, Emilie Perotto and the poet Guillaume Condello
East End Transmissions
The Pipe Factory, Glasgow.
This curatorial project explored, through an exhibition, a dedicated website, a series of events, and a publication, (hi)stories from the East End of Glasgow at the very time of its last regeneration plans.
With Glasgow-based artists: Jen Devonshire, Aideen Doran, Virginia Hutchison, Thomas Leyland Collins, Kit Mead, Douglas Morland, Janie Nicoll, Lyndsey Smith, Susannah Stark, and people from the community: Jane, Margaret, Peter, William and the children of PEEK Project.
past-forward.net
This digital platform explores the connections between art, memory/knowledge and the Web, by inviting artists to present an original project for the virtual realm. It also features a series of interviews to artists and art professionals exploring questions of memory.